ok, jet pack levels suck. final boss sucks. but, overall this is 5% of the game (going by completion totals, probably considerably less in real time).
The remaining 95% is platforming perfection. Hyperbolic I know. I feel Crash Bandicoot exists in its own genre of platformer, and Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is the pinnacle of this genre. I lovingly call it the "corridor platformer".
Rather than ever wrangle with a camera, the hurdle for many early 3D games, NaughtyDog opted for a fixed tight 3rd person camera angle and placed Crash in alleyways, creating levels that are like an Olympic hurdle course, but you also have to do a pole vault and a long jump as part of it. And then also do equestrian. And surfing. Then Crash also flows into 2D gameplay, then back into 3D. Then 3D which is kinda like the 2D. And then sometimes you gotta go backwards through a level you went forwards to get that 100% and it's super ridiculous and difficult but damn the absolute brass of NaughtyDog to make people do that.
(thinking about it, Super Mario 3D World is the closest we've come to a modern Crash-like... probably why that game also absolutely owns)
It just rules. Levels stay varied, music slaps, sound effects slap. The lives system works to the game's benefit, providing an extra layer of sonic feedback to a well played level. All the whumpa fruit "WHOMP" sounds and the "KA-CHUNK!" after exiting a bonus level, is an unintrusive endorphin blast as you continue crashing along to box break noises and the ever-so-iconic soundtrack.
Crash moves great. Slide jump rules. I use it far too much, but watching him go so damn high and do the splits, is just wonderful. Accentuates Crash's jump height, feels like he soars 10ft into the air.
Polar bear levels are great. Motorised surfboard levels are less great than the polar bear, but much much better than the jetpack. The boulder levels are great. The finale of the boulder levels should be put on a podium of how to happily repeatedly surprise a player.
If I have one criticism, I think two of the levels (Unbearable and Cold Hard Crash) have some really mean hidden boxes in their bonus stages which are off-camera. These just feel cheap, especially in a game where camera control is intentionally (and masterfully) non-existent. And I'd say some secrets are a little obtuse? I don't have the manual with my copy, so maybe it goes into more detail there? Idk, we got the internet now, and we had Prima Official Guides back then.
It's a wonderful game and a wonderful thing to 100%. I could chew ears off all day with banal Crash 2 chat, so I'll end it with this:
don't you ever bring up those jetpack levels again.
The remaining 95% is platforming perfection. Hyperbolic I know. I feel Crash Bandicoot exists in its own genre of platformer, and Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is the pinnacle of this genre. I lovingly call it the "corridor platformer".
Rather than ever wrangle with a camera, the hurdle for many early 3D games, NaughtyDog opted for a fixed tight 3rd person camera angle and placed Crash in alleyways, creating levels that are like an Olympic hurdle course, but you also have to do a pole vault and a long jump as part of it. And then also do equestrian. And surfing. Then Crash also flows into 2D gameplay, then back into 3D. Then 3D which is kinda like the 2D. And then sometimes you gotta go backwards through a level you went forwards to get that 100% and it's super ridiculous and difficult but damn the absolute brass of NaughtyDog to make people do that.
(thinking about it, Super Mario 3D World is the closest we've come to a modern Crash-like... probably why that game also absolutely owns)
It just rules. Levels stay varied, music slaps, sound effects slap. The lives system works to the game's benefit, providing an extra layer of sonic feedback to a well played level. All the whumpa fruit "WHOMP" sounds and the "KA-CHUNK!" after exiting a bonus level, is an unintrusive endorphin blast as you continue crashing along to box break noises and the ever-so-iconic soundtrack.
Crash moves great. Slide jump rules. I use it far too much, but watching him go so damn high and do the splits, is just wonderful. Accentuates Crash's jump height, feels like he soars 10ft into the air.
Polar bear levels are great. Motorised surfboard levels are less great than the polar bear, but much much better than the jetpack. The boulder levels are great. The finale of the boulder levels should be put on a podium of how to happily repeatedly surprise a player.
If I have one criticism, I think two of the levels (Unbearable and Cold Hard Crash) have some really mean hidden boxes in their bonus stages which are off-camera. These just feel cheap, especially in a game where camera control is intentionally (and masterfully) non-existent. And I'd say some secrets are a little obtuse? I don't have the manual with my copy, so maybe it goes into more detail there? Idk, we got the internet now, and we had Prima Official Guides back then.
It's a wonderful game and a wonderful thing to 100%. I could chew ears off all day with banal Crash 2 chat, so I'll end it with this:
don't you ever bring up those jetpack levels again.
Swif
1 year ago
and super mario 3D world is probably the pinnacle of the genre tbh imo tbh.